Well,
we got Cory and Sara all married up last night.
There were a few tense moments, though.
I think Sara’s grandma was a bit excited to get things going. I told her that when she was seated we would
begin. So she went and got herself
seated about ten minutes early. One of
the groomsmen successfully retrieved her, though. And speaking of groomsmen, the tall, very
thin guy? Popped a gut button on his tux
before we got started. The skinniest guy
in the whole church. The other groomsmen
were all willing to make necessary adjustments, like buttoning just the bottom
button, but that wouldn’t have gone over too well with the myriad of female
“observers.” Fortunately, the handy
dandy representative of the church leapt into
action, though, and had a safety pin out in no time. Crisis averted.
Next
up was the request of the bride that I appeal to the crowd not to use their
cell phones to take pictures during the ceremony. I figured I had to do something to get their
attention first, so I regally approached the stage. Once there I pulled out my own cell phone and
with great rigor and exaggerated motions, I took a selfie with the crowd in the
background. Then I turned to the group
and said, "Sara has asked that you not do anything like that with your cell
phones during the ceremony. And
remember, she is a cop, so if you do she will probably arrest you.”
Ah,
stress. Happens every time there is a
small child involved in the wedding.
This time there were no less than
five. The three little flower girls were
as cute as they could be, of course.
They apparently decided early on that they were not walking down the
aisle by themselves, though. And I guess
they didn’t know each other well enough to be comforted by that presence. So they chose the next best thing. Well, from their perspective I guess it was
always the first best thing. Just took
us longer to catch up with their logic.
Each of them had a Mommy who was in the bridal party, so they simply
took Mom’s hand and walked with her.
Precious stuff. And their
subsequent antics during the ceremony were the stuff videos were made to
capture. Non-stop wiggling. Felt like I was at one of our Seaside family
worship services. My favorite came when
one of them sat down on the step very quietly, just as Mom asked of her. But she oh-so-slowly inched her way across
the front of the stage, still sitting, mind you. Masterfully done.
A
solution for the boys’ dilemma was not so easy, however. Ethan, the older guy did just fine. He’s a bit of a showman anyway. In fact he did his best to help when Little
Jameson balked at the thought of the long walk into the sea of strangers. No amount of encouragement was reaching
him. Jameson simply wouldn’t budge, in
spite of the promise of Skittles and a reunion with Daddy up at the front. Not worth a battle, though. The bride was fine with whatever happened, so
we pushed on through without Jameson, who calmly enjoyed the ceremony playing
with his toy fire truck and munching on Skittles. So did his Dad. The munching on Skittles part, not the fire
truck.
Oh,
and speaking of Ethan, that showman disguised as a ring bearer. When I asked, “Who presents this woman to be
married to this man?” the bride’s Dad dutifully and respectfully answered, “I
do,” at which point an echo was heard bouncing through the building. It was Ethan crying out, “I do, too.”
The
post-wedding photography session went about as expected. Lots of family stuff around the stage
area. Then they headed into the church’s
little outdoor atrium. Lots of pretty
flowers and greenery. Perfect backdrop
for even more photos. The favorite
segment of that session was by far not included in the planned repertoire of
the camerawoman. The groom made a
valiant attempt to leap into the arms of one of the groomsmen in a staged
repeat of a certain move made famous in the movie Dirty Dancing. Well, he made two attempts, actually. And neither of them were particularly
successful. Fortunately for the happy
couple, though, a certain renegade pastor happened to have his cell phone camera
in video mode at an opportune moment or two.
We’ll have to get that one shared in all the right places.
We
all finally made our way up to Texas City where the reception was to be
held. Yep. Ceremony in Galveston. Reception in Texas. Not many people can say their wedding covered
two separate countries in thirty minutes’ time.
There was a bit of a snafu with the food, though. Catering was by none other than Chick-Fil-A,
a fitting tribute to the simple tastes of the bride and groom. But somewhere there was a missed
communication concerning mashed potatoes and green beans. Neither were anywhere on the premises. I heard one supervisor making tentative plans
to nab a batch of taters from over at the KFC, but I’m not sure if that ever
came to fruition. Mashed potatoes did
make an appearance, though. As did some
of those little weenies. But hey,
Chick-Fil-A is all about the chicken, right?
Probably
my favorite part of the entire night was reuniting with a huge crowd of Seaside
youth who have all grown up and are doing their best to act like adults. Kind of like Cory and Sara were doing. Let’s see if I can get them all
mentioned. Mama Chris and Pastor Kelley,
of course. And semi-adults Melissa,
Rita, Anne, Eric, and I suppose we have to include Marcus in this
category. But then there were Megan,
Cody, Cory, Jacob, Houston, Allie, Melissa, Ashley, Sydney, Jimmy, Travis,
Matt, Lora, Kelly, Josh, Thomas, MacKenzie, and Nathan. Quite the makings for a full-blown reunion
sometime in the future, don’t you think?
We did numerous photos together at the picture booth, so at least a few
of them should be showing up on FaceBook.
There were quite a few other Seasiders in attendance as well. Connoisseur of fine Chick-Fil-A dips Ed
graciously allowed Chris and I to join him and Lauren and Cathy at their
table. Twinkle-toes Billy, was there,
owning the dance floor with his gorgeous dance partner (and daughter)
Emily. And good ol’ Silver-Nose
Jamie. He took creative artwork to the
extreme. The bride and groom had a
canvas set up where people could leave their fingerprints and a brief
message. Get it? Fingerprints for the two cops? I loved the creativity. And so did Jamie. Except he was apparently told by somebody
that the smudges on the canvas were all nose prints. I mean, come on. Anybody can do fingerprints. But nose prints? Now that’s special. So Jamie buried his nose in the inkpad and
squashed it upon the canvas, making his indelible mark – his nose mark. Like I said, good ol’ Silver-nose.
I’m
sure there were plenty of others that I missed mentioning, and plenty of
anecdotes that were certainly worthy of telling. Well, maybe not that worthy. But with that, I join with Cory and Sara in
declaring the mission a success. They
slapped a punctuation mark on the wedding ceremony by smacking a high five just
before the kiss. So picture here an open
palm, all ready for you to connect with it on your screen. Or maybe a lips emoji that you can literally
smack. Or maybe … just say a prayer for
Cory and Sara, get some rest, and I’ll see you in church tomorrow morning.
Revelation
5:13-14 says, “Then I heard every
creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all
that is in them, singing: ‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be
praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!’
The four living
creatures said, ‘Amen,’ and the elders fell down and worshiped.
Father,
walk with Cory and Sara in their new life together. Draw them closer to you so they can get
closer to each other. Amen.
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